Report: Shelby Blocks All Obama Nominations In The Senate Over AL Earmarks

You mean him and his buddies...

Someone needs to look carefully into Shelby's personal connections to the corporate recipients of that earmarked pork, he seems desperate in a very personal way.

I realize he already got campaign contributions from those interests to make this happening the first place, but his desperation suggests there's more benefits than just campaign contributions at stake.

We all know he's not nearly as concerned about the majority of his constituents as he is in enriching the upper crust, so I would wager those earmarks are for that purpose.

There's also a "grab it while I can" edge to this, Shelby seems to be taking a big chance with both the 'baggers and the mainstream voters by doing this, maybe he figures he'd better shove this through while he has a chance, and hope the chips all fall his way.

Seriously, what is Shelby's personal stake in this deal? It seems like a very desperate move, even for a Bush Republican.

But if Obama had a press conference about a FEW petty things, he could smack 'em down for being petty, and they would learn that they can't get away with this sh*t anymore. As it is, he's being nibbled to death by ducks, as my grandma would say. And grandma knew that the only way to get the ducks away was a swift kick.

Given that the constitution also explicitly calls for the president to address both houses of Congress once a year and to report on the state of the union, I'm going to have to say that once again, you're saying that the president is overstepping his authority when he is, in fact, exercising his authority. There is no provision or rule in the constitution which says that he must be nice, it says that he must report on the state of the country. Everything he said, whether or not you like it, was, in fact, a report on what is happening in our nation right now. You're essentially arguing that Joe Wilson violated the boundaries of his constitutional authority by yelling "you lie" at the president last year. That is, of course, pure idiocy.

As for his use of signing statements, you don't get to complain about that until he hits double digits. Right now he's at a paltry 8 as compared to Bush's 140. All of that putting aside the fact that the purpose of a signing statement is to nullify those portions of a law which violate the constitution. As his job is to dutifully execute the law and uphold the constitution, I fail to see the hidden agenda conspiracy there.

As for his "czar appointments", the same rules apply. He's made 8 and Bush made 47. And again, a "czar" as the media loves to call them, is just a cabinet post that the president, within his authority as granted by the constitution, creates in order to execute a specific or particular law.

Now, for you to insinuate that this has anything to do with Shelby exercising some form of high minded idealism or retribution for injustices carried out against the people is so ridiculous as to be insulting. You can't honestly be so naive as to believe that this man is holding up these nominations for principle or any other purpose than to guarantee that Northrop secures an $80bn defense contract.

I would however, like to say thank you for specifying that you believe he's turning us into a democratic socialist country and not just a socialist one. It's a distinction people rarely make, but an important one nonetheless. That being said, I'd urge you to look into what "socialist", "democracy", and "turn this nation into" mean, because if you had even a Wikipedia level knowledge of any of those topics, you'd realize how far, far, far, from true that statement actually is.